Graceketball

St Johns beat UConn last week at Storrs for a huge upset. They have gone on to beat a good WVa team and on Saturday they crushed Villanova on senior night at Carnesecca. They play #12 Georgetown tonight in their final Big East game of the regular season. I'm sure nobody wants to play them in the Big East Tournament... dangerous team. NEW YORK (WTW) — St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico's phone hasn't stop buzzing. It's been 48 hours since the Red Storm's thrilling 57-56 upset victory over then-No. 2 Connecticut on Saturday night ended the Huskies' 99-game home winning streak and the texts keep coming. "I had 100 texts waiting for me when I got on the bus and they just haven't stopped," Barnes Arico said. One was from Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma saying he was proud of her. "It just goes to show how much of a class act he is," Barnes Arico said. Misery The team enjoyed its 2-hour bus ride home from Storrs, singing and...

This is getting to be a habit! Congratulations to the Princeton Tigers on winning the Ivy League for the third consecutive season. Special big-up to Megan Griffith! Melanie, Milena and Courtney Banghart, the hardest working coaching staff in college basketball. Have FUN in the tournament...... again!

GraceAnne had a nice little breakout game over the weekend. The last few weeks she's been a little lost and looked uncomfortable on the floor. We had a couple long conversations on focus and consistency of effort, not just in basketball but in pursuing whatever goal it is you are trying to achieve. She was working on an English project that made for a good example... you don't just hope it's going to be easy with little difficulty and expect to get an A. You prepare, overcome any problems that arise and work hard towards getting that A. Obstacles very often present opportunity and fears seem to have a way of melting away when you confront them head on. She told me she felt "prepared" by training with Laura and she did a couple of nice moves that I've seen her working on. She really played the "whole" game and you could see that the effort and intensity was there. My feeling is she needs to think less about the result she's hoping for and more...

Carrie Moore 2007 NCAA Scoring Champion Jay's Assistant Coach Carrie Moore, one of the finest people I have ever met in or outside of basketball. GraceAnne and I got to know Carrie when she was Director of Basketball Operations at Princeton University. Coach Moore was kind enough to work with Grace and taught her many of the fundamental skills she needed. She created a foundation that Grace continues to build on today. Carrie Moore Fighting for Ball Carrie Moore continues to be a mentor, a source of encouragement and support, and a role model for GraceAnne. I'm very pleased that my daughter looks up to someone with such integrity and high character as Coach Carrie Moore. Carrie Moore, Phoenix Mercury Coach Moore is currently an Assistant Coach at Creighton University. We would love to see Carrie back on the East Coast where we could see her more often. When Grace is going through a tough time I can always count on Carrie to give her encouragement and more im...

Grace has been making a lot of progress working on her game with St John's Graduate Assistant Laura Barry. It's been great to get her out to St John's every once in a while and Laura is a very good trainer and a super-nice person. Wish we could do it more often, now that the JV season is over maybe we can! GraceAnne seems to have a lot of fun working with her and I can tell she respects and listens to everything she has to say. 10  Laura Barry Class: Senior Hometown: Cary, N.C. High School: Cary Last College: UNC Wilmington Height: 5-8 Position: Guard Working toward a major in exercise and sport science with a concentration in sport administration • Switched jersey number from 4 to 10 • Practiced with the Tar Heels during their Final Four run in 2007 • Two-time Dean's List honoree • Former co-president of the UNC women's club basketball team which won a pair of league titles. Laura, on her way to the final four in 2008 after NC defeat...

Very apropos team nickname. Island Garden's Super League has started and The Swarm has won the first two games of their season. Both wins were not exactly unexpected but... well, we didn't quite know what to expect. The girls are playing at the 8th-9th grade level in preparation for the upcoming AAU season. At this stage winning games isn't as important as playing well, learning the plays, learning one another and just getting better. Winning does help with all these things though and it is much easier to keep everybody invested and motivated when winning than when they are taking their lumps. Winning is fun. This is a really fun team! Very fast, very athletic and a couple really, really smart players that know the game very well. Ball movement was excellent, help defense was excellent. These are two really good signs early on that these girls will play team ball... which means more winning!

Swarm took down a 9-2 8th grade team on Saturday to start Island Garden Super League. Really fun game to watch if only to see how kids have progressed and how the new girls fit in. One thing is certain, all these girls hustle on every play and there aren't going to be a lot of minutes to go around. Otherwise it was an extremely physical and very poorly officiated game. Those games don't usually favor our girls, we're not bangers. This time they came out on top. Good way to start off. Glen Cove JV won their final game of the season to go 12-5. Pretty good! No post season at the JV level so High School ball is all done until next year. GraceAnne had a good time and the daily practices definitely improved her game and kept her in shape. I think she really enjoyed playing up at the High School, meeting and making friends with the older girls and generally just getting a taste of what High School and High School basketball are all about. As a dad I'm thankful she got the...

Very nice group of girls! Bright future! Glen Cove JV still rolling along with an 11-5 record and one game to play. Today the team is going to do some community outreach. Coach Corinne Turner has them helping out at a local soup kitchen. Great thing for the kids individually and for the whole team as well. Friday will be the final game of what has been a very successful season. No clue what Grace will do next year yet. The varsity is 0-16, they don't seem to take the game, the coach, practices or the team very seriously... they haven't been very nice to the youngsters either... we'll see what happens. Much more aggressive offensively Game7 Swarm's first Super League game at Island Garden is Saturday. It will be interesting to take the newly minted Swarm out for their maiden voyage and see what they can do. If Storm 'n GCJV are any indication; no true point guard, every play going one direction on the floor or to one girl whose first option is herself it...